The online network X has sparked major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
